As Promised, Williams Puts on a Show

ORLANDO -- Mike Brown made like an emcee for a lounge act.

With his pregame interview Wednesday night running out of steam, the Cleveland coach suddenly saw his point guard, Mo Williams, walk by. Brown yelled for Williams to come over and say a few words to the assembled media.

Williams rolled out some early material about how his alma mater, Alabama, was going to continue to do some damage on the gridiron. Then he got to the good stuff.

"You all ready for a show tonight?'' he said. "Because I'm going to give you all one tonight.''

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With that, Williams left. Brown, apparently expecting applause, said, "Mo Williams.'' All that was missing was an advertisement about whether he would be appearing nightly and some information on half-price drink specials.

When it got the main part of the evening entertainment at Amway Arena, Williams really delivered. He scored 22 of his 28 points in the first half as the Cavaliers rolled to a 102-93 win over Orlando. "I'm confident going into any game,'' said Williams, shrugging off that his pre-game promise of providing a show was anything out of the ordinary. "Some nights are better than others. That was a good night.''

It sure started out good. Williams shot 9-of-9, including 4-of-4 from 3-point range, as Cleveland took a 66-51 halftime lead before extending the advantage to as much as 22 points in the second half.

OK, so Cavaliers megastud LeBron James had 23 points in the first half and a game-high 36. But that wasn't too unexpected.

In a rematch of last spring's Eastern Conference finals, won 4-2 by the Magic, Williams was a key reason Cleveland won. His hot first half pretty much made the battle between Cavaliers center Shaquille O'Neal and Magic counterpart Dwight Howard, which had been getting most of the pre-game headlines, insignificant.

Howard did his part in making sure the matchup fizzled early. He picked up two fouls in the first 2:18, and ended up playing just 11 minutes in the first half.

"Mo came out and he was on fire. He carried us most of the night. ... And we needed that from him."
- LeBron James on
Mo Williams Howard finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. And Shaq, who was picked up less than a month after Howard got done steamrolling the Cavaliers last spring, had 10 points and four rebounds while having some foul trouble of his own.

"Mo came out and he was on fire,'' James said. "He carried us most of the night. He added another threat, which we know he's got in him, and he had an unbelievable game. And we needed that from him. ... Any time you get that from your point guard, it puts pressure on your defense. It's awesome.''

Williams hadn't been providing a tremendous amount of that pressure in the first seven games, averaging 15.7 points and shooting 42.5 percent. And he didn't in the Eastern final against the Magic.

Williams averaged 18.3 points, which was solid. But he shot just 41.4 percent in the series.

"He came out and was aggressive and he made shots,'' Magic point guard Jameer Nelson said of Williams' Wednesday. "He's been an All-Star, and you've got to give him credit. He came out and played aggressive.''

Interestingly, Nelson was originally named to the East All-Star Game last season before having to bow out due to injury. But while Williams didn't directly replace Nelson, the injury to the Orlando point guard certainly played a role in Williams making the team.

But sympathy for Nelson not being able to play was not shown on the court. Williams was hot from the start, shooting 4-of-4 and scoring nine points in the first quarter.



Mo gave the Cavaliers (5-3) some much-needed momentum in their desire to steal the East crown from the Magic (6-3). But it must be said Orlando did play its ninth game without star forward Rashard Lewis, suspended by the NBA for the season's first 10 games for testing positive for a substance on the NBA's banned list.

"They're still a good team even without Rashard and missing Ryan (Anderson, a versatile forward),'' Brown said. "They've won some ballgames. ... They probably feel like they're missing those guys, and that really hurt them, but I like the effort (by the Cavaliers).''

Brown also liked something else about Williams. He said he really defended well.

But that part of Williams' show was overshadowed. It was his shooting that made the Magic disappear.

"We're going to take a road victory,'' said Williams, shrugging off any talk about Orlando not being at full strength. "They're still a very good team. But, at the same time, we look at ourselves and it's a road victory. We came in and got it done on the road.''

Williams sure took his show on the road with success. Whether he was performing at Amway Arena or in the Catskills, this was one act Brown was proud to introduce.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter @christomasson.